Sustain Southeast is an organization focused on accelerating local economic growth and amplifying local sustainability initiatives through transparency, efficient use of resources, networking and collaboration, innovation, and education in sustainability & clean energy in Alabama and throughout the Southeast.
Mission & Vision
Focus Areas
Who We're Engaging With
Sustain Southeast was initiated in order to bring about awareness and increased collaboration amongst professional groups working towards a greener future for populations they serve.We can only build a sustainable future together, we need you!
Phases of Implementation
In order to work intentionally align our actions to create Sustain Southeast's ultimate vision, we've broke down our work in three distinct phases that pave a clear roadmap of how we plan to bring stakeholders to the table in favor of a sustainable now.
Phase One: Diligence + Coalition Building
In order to build out operations that amplify the sustainability efforts of the Southeast, we must first bring everyone to the table and cultivate broad, impartial awareness among members and partners. We know that so many Southern organizations are doing awesome sustainability work! We want to create a collaborative, nonpartisan space that prevents duplicative efforts, maximizes the impact of current initiatives, and brings a diverse array of stakeholders together.We’ll do this by facilitating a sustainable initiative database with customized select visibility (so you control who sees your org’s projects) and hosting regular discussions for green change-making. We’ll start in Birmingham and extend outwards through the region as resources allow.
Phase Two: Knowledge Sharing
Once regional stakeholders can see the full landscape of sustainability work unfolding around them, they can more strategically contribute and find partners. We believe that transparency and education will supercharge collective efforts. However, this is not the first initiative of its kind. We will foster understanding and collaboration with external partners as well.We'll continue facilitating educational events, forums, lectures and more to share knowledge and promote workforce training during this phase. We'll highlight careers and companies that are filling gaps in the sustainability value chain, supporting economic growth. We'll also host regular webinars with stakeholders across the US and worldwide. This positions the Southeast at the forefront of sustainability and allows members to evolve their work.
Phase Three:
Community Engagement + Economic Growth
After building transparency and education amongst key players, we’ll broaden our outreach to engage the wider community. This includes students, neighborhood groups, businesses, nonprofits, and local governments across the region. A key goal will be driving economic growth by supporting entrepreneurs and connecting them to accelerators like Techstars. We’ll actively engage stakeholders on ways to promote business opportunities that fill gaps in the sustainability value chain.We’ll develop toolkits and resources to empower community groups to take sustainability action. Our coalition of partners will provide mentoring and support. We’ll also create volunteer and training opportunities for community members to gain hands-on experience with regional sustainability projects. Our hands-on programs will feed into accelerator pipelines to scale solutions from engaged entrepreneurs.
The Team
Erika Boeing is founder and CEO of Accelerate Wind, where she is revolutionizing rooftop wind energy in the commercial and industrial spaces by drastically lower the cost of small wind turbine technology. Erika has worked as a systems engineer, designing and patenting new energy, water and waste technologies for small base camps, has completed a Fulbright Scholarship in the Netherlands, and has worked as a research fellow for Project Drawdown, where she performed climate and economic modeling which contributed to Drawdown, the best-selling environmental book of 2017. Erika is a systems thinker and problem solver, most comfortable developing products that require knowledge from a wide variety of disciplines.
Keyona Meeks is General Partner at BlackTech Capital, a pre-seed/seed fund investing in underrepresented founders in climatetech and cleantech. She has experience with racial equity issues facing underserved populations across the South. Her mission is closing the racial wealth gap by directing capital, mentorship and resources to diverse founders and ecosystems. Keyona builds partnerships to fund innovative minority founders solving sustainability challenges. She provides startup advising and enables scaling of solutions from diverse changemakers. Her investment experience and on-the-ground work strengthen the pipeline of minority founders in climatetech.
Lindsey Motlow is a Senior Research Associate at Darcy Partners, an innovation advisory and networking platform in the Energy Industry. She brings deep expertise in emerging energy technologies from her work with energy operators and investors globally, with a focus on clean Hydrogen, firm low carbon power generation, emissions detection, and energy equity. Lindsey's background enables her to rapidly vet and evaluate technology providers across the energy sector. She contributes crucial knowledge around deploying and scaling new solutions through her work analyzing trends, identifying challenges, and collaborating with industry peers.
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